We had our annual Utley Family Reunion this past weekend. July 12-15. Josh and I were in charge this year.Let me tell you, that it is HARD work planning something like that! You have to worry about how much food to bring and who brings what....WHEW...its exhausting!  We pretty much got rained on the entire time! It was freezing cold to top it all off! But we had fun still!! We ate GREAT food as always! Had good laughs and enjoyed being in the mountains! We tye-dyed tshirts, which turned out pretty awesome! The guys had horseshoe tournaments and the girls all watched and cheered them on! :) The kids kept themselves entertained playing in the little trees we had around our campground! I had so many things planned for us to do, but due to the weather, that kind of went out the window! :(  The weather did manage to work with me on Saturday evening, so I was able to make my homemade doughnuts and boy were they a HIT! Everyone  LOVED them!!! I think I made close to 200 of those suckers!  Hopefully next year it will not be so rainy and cold!
 MarKell and Brynlee with Grandpa Ron We sure do miss our Grandma Sheen!! :(

Braxton was the only one of my kids I got with their tye-dyed shirts! I wrapped it, and he dyed it!! I would say he did a pretty good job on it!!

 Violet eating on some yummy watermelon!

 Krew and Hadlee playing around in the trees

 Most of the grandkids with Grandpa right before he left! (We should have all left when he did, cause after that it POURED and we got SOAKED trying to take down camp!! )

 Braxton found a rock hill the day we left and thought he was king of the world LOL

 Wait...WHAT?? You mean I got more than one picture of this kid?? That is a miracle!! :)

 This is what happens to you when you are in the mountains for 4 days in the rain and cold!! WE.ARE.SO.SPECIAL!!! hahah!!! hey, atleast we have fun! :)

Brax taking Bryn on a four wheeler ride.....then they had a small wreck and Bryn bit her lip...HARD! it was soo swollen she couldn't even talk. It is still trying to heal! Good thing that was all that happened to them!!

Eli, Scarlet, and Brynlee staying warm in the trailer because it was nice and cold outside!

Braxton turns 14...WHAT???

I can NOT believe this little bugger is 14!!! Why does time fly by SO fast?! Where did my little boy go? He is growing up too fast! and growing to tall too! He is way past me! Not cool! Brax is seriously the BEST kid around! He helps me out so much! I love that he knows SO much and he already is preparing for the future and what he wants to do with his life! He is growing up way to fast! two more years and he will be driving! AGH!!!  Happy Birthday bud!!! We love you so much!!

He got a money tree for one of his birthday presents! sweet!!

YEP! Managed to get 2...thats right 2 pictures of him!! He hates getting his pics taken so I almost have to FORCE him to let me take any!! haha!!!

All Star Baseball

After regular season, Porter was selected to be on the 10 year old All Star Baseball team! What a great group of young boys they are! Porter played awesome and almost every time he was up to bat, he either hit the ball or got walked! There were only a few times out of the whole season where he struck out! He is such an awesome little player! He mostly played short stop or second base. occassionaly he played first base. Being such the AWESOME mom that I am, I totally got only these 2 pictures that are from STATE! Yes, that would be the VERY last day of playing ball! I am kicking myself in the bum for that one!! Anywho, these boys played so good! They ended up taking 2nd in State! Heck yes, we will take that!!! Way to go Porter! You played awesome this year!! (Oh, and great job to the handsome hubs...he helped coach! He looks sexy in those baseball pants!! :)  )

My baby girl turns 6!!

I can't believe my little girl is 6!! Seems like just yesterday I was holding her in my arms for the very first time! We had big plans for her birthday party celebration, having a big water party at the house....but the weather had to be mean and ruin it! So we decided at the last minute to go over to the swimming pool. I am sure glad we did that!! They had a BLAST!! All 13 of them!! hahah!! It was crazy, but worth it!!

All the girls before we headed over! What a bunch of cuties! All with different personalities! LOL

My baby girl with all her fun presents she got!

The three stooges! haha! These boys thought they just HAD to come and have fun too! Good thing they are cute!

being goofy! They wanted me to take pics of them doing tricks!!

Baseball (regular season)

 Porter played baseball again this year. He is such a good little athlete. Very dedicated to it too! This is during regular season baseball. He played on the Red Sox team. He did great!!

 Brynlee had her year end dance recital in May I think! I cant remember the exact date! LOL She did amazing as always! She sure knows how to shake her booty!! :) Way to go sis! So proud of you!!

so far behind.....

 I am horrible at blogging lately! Days are just flying by so quickly and I find no time to blog. So it gets put on the back burner. I will try to get up to date, so here it goes! We went to my sister in law Tamara's house for our easter egg coloring. The kids had fun coloring them, but I didn't get very many pictures! I always forget to take them.

 Instead of rolling our Easter Eggs this year, we decided to take them out and shoot them! :)

 see all the eggs??

 Brynlee thought it was easier to just crack them over Porter's head!! Too bad they were hard boiled! haha

Every year the Kindergarten puts on Fairy Tale Plays for parents. This year, Brynlee was the witch from Hansel and Gretel. She did awesome and knew her lines so well! So proud of her!!

December Happening....

 Wow November flew by fast! We had Thanksgiving dinner this year with the Lundgreens! It was pretty fun! We had some good laughs and good food. so overall it was a good day! sorry, I didnt take my camera,so no pics! December came and we were so ready for Christmas, (I actually decorated my house the weekend before Thanksgiving) I celebrated my birthday on the 20th. the big 3-2! sheesh!! LOL Had a good day overall. We got out of school for the start of Christmas break on the 22nd. we went to my moms on Christmas Eve and had yummy ham, mashed potatoes (my assignment), salads, and rolls (my assignment too, homemade even!) We had a great time, and even had a special visitor come! He brought each kid a present and then left to get ready for his big night of flying around the world! :) Then the kids put on the nativity and after that the kids opened their Christmas pjs. It was time to head home and go to bed so santa could come! I am so terrible with picture taking! I ALWAYS take pics of the kids in their jammies and totally spaced it off! AND I always take a pic of them in their new church clothes! BLAH!!! I forgot again! Probably because we had 9:00 church! anyways, Christmas morning we woke up at 6 and opened presents then got ready and went to church! It really is special to celebrate Christmas on a Sunday! What better way to celebrate Christ's birth than going to church! after church we came home and let the kids play with their toys before it was time to go to Utley Christmas party. We had a great Christmas this year and hope you all did as well!

 Love, Love this pic of MaLeea looking at Santa and Santa looking at MaLeea!! so cute!

 Christmas morning!! seeing what they got!

We had a pretty good 2011, but am exciting to see what 2012 has to offer and may this year be a great one!!!